Some Background As to Why California Has a Chronic Budget Problem
The UCLA Anderson Forecast today suggested California is in for an extended period of sluggish economic performance. Such sluggishness obviously makes coming to some state budget accord difficult. You can find a press release on the Forecast at http://uclaforecast.com/contents/archive/2010/media_91510_1.asp However, tucked away in each quarterly Forecast publication is an updated version of a chart, reproduced here, that gives a long-run perspective. The chart show a long-term trend rate of employment growth that lasted until about 1990. In the early 1990s, while the nation as a whole had a very mild recession, California had a major one. The year 1990 is…
